Former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Monday for defrauding people by claiming he needed money for cancer treatment.
The court heard he defrauded 22 people out of a total of almost €400,000, only just over €44,000 of which has been paid back.
Judge Martin Nolan said a custodial sentence was inevitable.
Carey, with an address at Newtown, Maynooth, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty in July to ten counts of dishonestly inducing people to pay him money after he falsely claimed to have cancer.
The sentencing was adjourned earlier in the week after the court was told he was in hospital.
The offences occurred between 2014 and 2022 and involved 13 people.
Ten further counts involving nine others are being taken into consideration by the court.
Detective Sergeant Michael Bourke told prosecuting counsel, Dominic McGinn that one of those who was defrauded, was businessman Denis O’Brien who gave Carey a total of just over €125,000 along with $13,000 over six years. The court heard the money was never repaid.
The court also heard Carey received €4,000 from a couple who were dealing with a cancer diagnosis.
Watch: DJ Carey arriving at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin
Carey claimed to Ger Kirwan to have the same type of cancer as his wife Margaret Kirwan.
Mr Kirwan paid €4,000 to Carey in September 2021 which was repaid in November 2022, after Mrs Kirwan made a statement to gardaà during her own cancer treatment.
The court heard Carey told most of his victims that he was receiving cancer treatment in Seattle in the US and needed funds to pay for treatment.
In some cases, he told them that he was due a payout from the HSE for a negligence case he had taken against St James’s Hospital.
One of the victims was a distant cousin of Carey’s. Some were friends of Carey’s for many years, some were acquaintances and work colleagues.
Tom Brennan, who had been in the same school as Carey in Kilkenny, gave Carey €120,000.
He eventually obtained a judgment against him in the civil courts but the money has not been repaid.
Sergeant Bourke confirmed a Seattle hospital Carey claimed to have been treated in had no record of him ever being treated there.
His GP had no record of him having cancer or receiving treatment for cancer.
There was also no record of any outstanding claim against the HSE or St James’s Hospital and he had not travelled to the US since 2015.
When Carey was questioned in December 2022, he admitted he had made up the story about being sick with cancer to buy himself time, as he had a substantial debt with AIB bank and that he had asked people for financial help.
Gardaà recovered a large amount of data from his mobile phone showing text messages to victims seeking financial assistance, referring to cancer and having to travel to Seattle and giving excuses for not repaying money.